Philosophy Student Gives Talk at TEDx Salt Lake City

Mohan Sudabattula, philosophy student and Humanities House resident, presented at
TEDx Salt Lake City on Sept. 8 at Kingsbury Hall. He was the first ever U student to be on the TEDx stage
and his talk focused on social innovation in healthcare through simple solutions and
community empowerment.

Sudabattula is co-founder of Project Embrace, an international medical nonprofit organization
that aims to reduce global health disparities and promote sustainable healthcare.
Project Embrace does this through the reuse and repurposing of previously owned medical
equipment from the U.S. to meet the need of patients worldwide.

“The United States is the only developed nation in the world that does not have universal
health coverage,” said Sudabattula during his talk. “Regardless of your political
stance on that, there’s a lot of adverse consequences to that. Consequences like the
production of easily preventable medical excess. In a lot of other systems that have
comprehensive health policy, you get prescribed the use of this stuff, you use it,
but then the expectation is that you give it back, so it can be redistributed to another
patient who has a similar need.”

In his talk, Sudabattula says the innovation for his organization didn’t come from
identifying that medical equipment isn’t trash after limited use, but rather taking
best practices from various public systems around the world and adapting them to a
non-profit.

“Innovation doesn’t have to come in the form of cutting-edge research or the advancement
of biotechnology, it can be through simple evaluations of something that is already
successful in one sector and applying it to another to create something new.”

Since the launch last year, Project Embrace has successfully collected hundreds of
medical devices from the community and distributed them to people around the world.

“When we feel empowered to make a difference, we do.”

TEDx conferences are independently-organized events that carry the spirit of the TED
(Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conferences, which aim to share “ideas worth spreading.”